Small speaker and cab

Jetfire

When Im using my amp at home, I only have a 2 x 12 and even on 1 watt mode (H&K Grandmiestr 36) its still abit loud. I wondered about getting a really small speaker cab for it.  The problem is, the master volume needs to be over a certain point be any good at low volumes ie to get the speaker working. 

Am I wrong thinking something like 1 x 8 would be any better? 

ICBM

A bit - certainly quieter, but you may not like the tone as much. Even then, it won't be *that* much quieter - no more than a few dB.

The best solution is an attenuator, which if you're attenuating from 1W can be a really small and cheap one, just a simple L-Pad or even a 2W pot would be plenty.

Jetfire

The h and k has a built in one which is already set to 1 watt....but youve already anwsered my question sadly  

pintspiller

An 8" or 10" speaker would certainly be quieter than a 2x12. I have a HT-1 that is so much louder through the 2x12, mind you smaller speakers lack bottom and sound boxy to me

ICBM

Jetfire said:

The h and k has a built in one which is already set to 1 watt....but youve already anwsered my question sadly  

No, I mean another one that goes between the amp and the speaker and will let you turn it down even further.

olafgarten

What speakers are in the 2x12?

It can make a large amount of difference, 1 watt cranked on the amp at 5 feet is around 100 dB with 2 V30's and around 90 with 1 G10 Greenback, that is around half the volume. 

Vaiai

With the attenuator you can run the amp on full power and crank it too so you get a better sound but as quiet as you want

normula1

I used to set my GM36 to 18 watt (just cuts out two of the valves) and then use an external attenuator to drop the volume down as it had more control and sounded a bit better.  
If I wanted it really quiet I dropped the GM to 5 watts with the external attenuator as well.

Jetfire

What external one did you use?

ICBM

olafgarten said:

What speakers are in the 2x12?

It can make a large amount of difference, 1 watt cranked on the amp at 5 feet is around 100 dB with 2 V30's and around 90 with 1 G10 Greenback, that is around half the volume. 

Not quite that much difference. Two V30s will give about 101dB, yes - but a G10 Greenback is 95dB. -6dB still a fair bit quieter, but still equivalent to a quarter of the power from the amp - which will still be loud. (In a small room the distance from the speaker makes much less difference because of the wall reflections.)

To get to true bedroom volume from a 1W amp you need to get well down under 90dB from the speakers, preferably closer to 80 - which can be done but not with anything that will sound like a proper guitar speaker.

It's really easy to take off another 10dB or even 20dB using the simplest of attenuators though - when you're driving it from a 1W amp you don't need to worry about significant power dissipation. I made one for my ZVex Nano with just a couple of 1/2W resistors and two jacks in a box.

Dave_Mc

^ Yeah. I've got the little Jensen Mod 6" speaker in my fame tube 5 (glorified champion 600), and its sensitivity is around 90dB IIRC. It definitely makes it significantly quieter compared to my louder speakers... but it's still pretty loud, and that's with a 5 watt amp. Plus, as you said, it's a teeny speaker which doesn't really sound as good as the bigger speakers (and that one is aimed at guitar).